Matt Harmon: As we roll into the month of June university, president Patrick Lehe gives the latest updates on the summer terms, the upcoming fall semester and all the latest Monmouth happenings. This is faculty member, Matt Harmon. It's time again for Monmouth weekly. Thanks to Zoe for joining us. Matt Harmon: Well, Memorial day weekend is down. That means we are moving into the month of June. And as I welcome in university, president Patrick Lehe, this is Monmouth weekly. Crazy enough to say. And I think I say this every week, crazy enough to say this is episode number 11. So we've completed almost three full months of doing these updates, trying to keep the Monmouth university community, both those that have already graduated. Those that are still part of the Monmouth community and those that might be coming in, uh, informed this week. It is just university president and myself, Matt Harmon, to talk things over after a Memorial day weekend, president Lehe. I wish you a good morning. I I'll say this morning. It's more of like coffee with Matt and pat rather than our normal afternoon spot. Um, I trust that you did have a good Memorial day weekend, an opportunity maybe to just, um, I I'll say refresh because I know even with the campus being closed for as long as it has, that hasn't mean the things have not been busy. Patrick Leahy: Yeah. Good morning to you, Matt. We had a great Memorial day weekend. Um, you know, there was a one point on, I guess it was Saturday where I was thinking of something Monmouth university related. And I, uh, I, I went to get my cell phone to make a call to one of my colleagues to unpack it with them. And I just decided, you know what, we're not gonna make this decision anytime before Tuesday. So I'm just gonna let it go until Tuesday and tried really hard to, to, uh, unplug as they say for Sunday and Monday. And it was a really, really worthwhile time with my family and, uh, gave everybody at mammoth a well deserved break. So we're back at a Tuesday morning, but we had a great restful Memorial day Matt Harmon: Weekend. You know, I, I was thinking of you from a family perspective over the weekend. Um, almost like the I'm sure the kids were so excited. Wow. Dad has this amazing new job. He's a mile from the beach. What a great summer we're gonna have. And the, the weather obviously didn't cooperate. They were probably looking at you saying, I thought we were, I thought we were working in a beach town, like it's Memorial day weekend. I should be sitting on the sand somewhere. Patrick Leahy: Yeah. And I sold that hard when, uh, when I was convincing them to leave a good situation back in Pennsylvania and to come here. So I have a little explaining to do to them, but, uh, they understand Matt Harmon: When you think of it. Um, obviously as, as now, the summer terms are up and going, um, summer a, I think summer B has kicked off, you know, the last time that we recorded, which was with vice president, Bob MCCA, talking about enrollment, uh, both you and he were encouraged about how the summer looked. Um, I'll say a little bit more than a week later. And now classes actually up and going is, is the feeling the same? Patrick Leahy: I remain very encouraged. Uh, I think we pretty much have caught up in terms of the number of credits we're offering this summer. Matt we've caught up to last year and last year was way ahead of the previous year. Um, and we still have opportunities for those later sessions this summer to, to add enrollments. So I think, um, you know, I keep saying the people that the campus remains closed until the end of June, but that does not in any way mean that this university is, is not active. I mean, all that summer activity is, is up and running. And, uh, from what I can tell is going very well so far, uh, as I've said to you before, I, I believe, uh, online delivery of programming in the summer is an increasingly popular way for students to continue, uh, to knock down academic credits, uh, during the summer. So I think this summer is just more evidence of a trend that was happening anyway. Matt Harmon: You know, when you think of it, something that you just said there, um, popped to popped in as a follow up question, you said, campuses closed until the end of June. Um, with the anticipation that after the end of June, things will move to some form of normalcy. And I say that with, with a little bit of, of baed breath, Patrick Leahy: Well, we're watching closely, uh, any conceivable guideline coming out from the state that might give us an opening. And I've been heartened by a few things. The governor has said of late one was about summer camps. That it's possible that, uh, he might issue some guidelines that would allow summer camps to go. And so that would be, uh, something that would be very relevant to us. Cuz as you know, we, in a typical summer, we have a robust summer camp activity, uh, athletics camps and science camps and other types of camps that we've had to, uh, postpone at least until July. So if we get some direction here in the next week or two that, uh, we can offer at least outside camps, uh, replete with all of the necessary social distancing and other, uh, you know, health, hygiene, uh, components. Then I think we would go ahead and offer, uh, some of those athletic camps in particular in July and August. And it's not just valuable for the participants met. I mean, you know, these are usually, you know, kids, uh, you know, grade school and maybe even some early high school kids that participate in those camps. So it's really, really valuable for them, but it's also really important for their parents who are looking for, uh, really productive ways to, uh, keep the kids occupied in the summer. So for both of those reasons, we'll be watching carefully in the hopes that, uh, there might be some easing in July that might allow us to begin the reopening process. Matt Harmon: You know, that also makes me think too, not only for the kids, how important it it is and for parents, um, whether they, you know, especially in today's day and age, you hate to say, could just use a little bit of a break or have to worry about their work situation and thinking of work situation. These camps often provide a pretty valuable resource in terms of making some extra money for coaches, staff, sometimes even student athletes or normal students who might be on campus. You know, that that's a pretty big piece of this as well. So anything to get anybody kind of back, I'll say back to work a little bit would be an important step in, in the right direction. Patrick Leahy: Yeah, that's the, that's the third main component to this and the reason why we didn't want to be too cavalier about canceling them for the whole summer is we know that especially for some of our assistant coaches, um, who are working their way, you know, into the business that, uh, these summer camps are a good opportunity for them to make a little bit of extra money. So I'm hopeful that if we get the guidelines that we need, we will follow them not only to the letter of them, but the spirit of them. And, uh, we'll be able to, to go ahead and open up these camps come, uh, July and August Matt Harmon: All. So that's some, I'll say mild, good news. There was some good news during the course of this week. You always joke. I am, I am one of your loyal followers on Twitter. So I get a lot of information from that. And two really good things that took place during, uh, the course of this past week. How many times have you been able to in your tenure as a university president here or elsewhere, be able to say national champions? Yeah. Uh, and I know something you are extremely excited about proud of. Um, and you've mentioned it on some of these podcasts already, how well the debate team has done, but now as national champions, uh, from the novice division, that is something that Monmouth can really stick a feather in their cap on. Patrick Leahy: Yeah, we've been touting for the last few weeks that, uh, our debate team as a whole, uh, was able to achieve its highest national ranking ever. Uh, there's a, a group that ranks all the college and university debate teams. And we were ranked at the end of the year, number 21 in the entire country, which, uh, for us was our highest ranking. And think about that, Matt, I mean, this, this is a ranking of all of the debate teams nationwide. Um, I always say with great pride that, uh, we were ranked ahead of some other schools that maybe you've heard of Georgetown Cornell, USC Navy , you know what I mean? Uh, some really, really fine schools. So that was a source of great pride, but we just learned over the weekend that our novice group that is those debaters who are, have, uh, fewer than 18 months of collegiate experience compete in the novice category. And this year Monmouth university was number one, ranked number one first in the nation among all the schools that offer, uh, novice teams. And that is, uh, as you point out source of great pride for us. And I always love when we can go up against other really fine schools, maybe some of, of which have, uh, shall we say better known reputations and then beat them head to head. That's always a source of great pride for me. Matt Harmon: You know, if, if memory is serving me correct, and, and clearly correct me if I'm wrong, um, it, it, that's still under the direction of, of professor Patton, correct. Patrick Leahy: Joe Patton yeah. Was work working his magic with our, uh, debate Hawks. Matt Harmon: Yeah. Pretty, pretty, pretty great stuff. And I know one of the other things, um, that took place during the course of this week and, and listen, if you follow along any of the, um, I'll say lot of polling systems that take place, Monmouth has moved kind of front and center. The Monmouth polling Institute under, under Patrick Murray, um, has done another great job this past year. And if you think of it, a, a latest rating of six out of if I'm reading right, 453 polling operations that were reviewed only six of them received an a plus rating and Monmouth was among them. Patrick Leahy: I mean, first of all, who knew that there were 453 organizations nationwide that do polling, uh, of some kind, but this, uh, uh, group called 5 38, they have established sort of the industry standard around rating, the credibility of polling institutes and of those 453, as you point out only six, only six got the Sterling, a plus rating and Monmouth university's polling Institute was once again, named to those, to that a plus rating. I mean, this is not the first time we've received this. We've, we've had this, uh, uh, for some number of years now. And, uh, again, a source of tremendous pride for us, uh, incredible work by Patrick Murray. Uh, we, we know him to be a real leader across the entire state. In fact, he was recognized in the fall as one of the top 100, uh, opinion leaders in the state of New Jersey anyway. And, uh, this is just more, uh, evidence to support that claim. Matt Harmon: You know, how important president Lehe are, um, things like that. You know, I mean, my background being in sports. So when a team does well, you know, that that is, is obviously good for the school, but, but things like the music industry, uh, program being so highly rated that we talked about a couple weeks ago, the polling Institute having an a plus rating, the debate team, uh, being national champions in that novice division, all of the different things that goes on that go on within the campus community. Um, it, I think I've made this analogy before with you, it's all these little pieces of the Monmouth puzzle, but when you put it all together, it it's a pretty impressive, uh, it's a pretty impressive looking puzzle. Patrick Leahy: Yeah. I mean, as you say, it's a, it's a combination of a lot of little things that I think rolled up together, strengthen our brand. Um, I'm reminded of, um, a friend of mine who works in marketing and I think he called it, uh, symbols of reevaluation or something like that, Matt, where you have to someone who doesn't know Monmouth otherwise, uh, but knows another, you know, more well known institution. Okay. How do you get people to reevaluate our relative standing? Well, you have to hold out to them that, Hey, we competed against that institution either on a field of play or in a debate or in model UN or, or whatever. And we emerged the winner. So it's it's any time we have an opportunity to tout the fact that we took our students at Mammouth and put 'em up against students at other really fine schools and, and hung with them, let alone beat them is an important part of getting people to reevaluate Monmouth university and, and see it in a much, an even greater light. You know, that's why I was so proud this fall when our field hockey team brought to west long branch, Stanford and Cal Berkeley in the, uh, field hockey, uh, playoffs. I mean, it's a small thing, but when we can say Monmouth went up against Cal Berkeley, one of the great athletic programs in the country and beat them and then played Stanford probably year and year out the best top to bottom athletics program in the country and, you know, lost, uh, a nail bite or frankly should have beaten them. Uh, I just think these are little pieces that, that demonstrate that, Hey, Monmouth can play with, uh, those kind of institutions. I, I'm not saying we are those institutions yet. I mean, Stanford is, um, unbelievable institution. I, I get that, but, but it is yet another piece of that puzzle that you mentioned, which if we can put enough of those together, it creates an image of Monmouth university that, that improves, um, people's perception of us. And I think it's really important. So we're not gonna be bashful about touting it when, when, uh, when we have these good stories, Matt Harmon: You know, not to leave anybody out, but as you were, uh, just given your answer and made me think to pull up all of the clubs and activities that take place on campus, under student clubs and organizations off of the Monmouth website. And you wanna talk about a, a just plethora of variety. I mean, again, not to leave anybody out, but we have everything on campus from a boxing club to an occupational therapy club from, uh, a, a e-sports club to a pre-dental club. And again, I'm just kind of looking and grabbing some of them. I mean, near and dear to my heart, obviously some of the ones that I'm involved with the surf club, the sports industry club, all the things that we do in the communication, um, department between WMC X and the outlook and Hawk, TV, and PR S S a, uh, and the verge, I mean, all the kind of the student media groups and organizations, but, but you think of it. Um, and again, I, I think this time of kind of reflection where everybody has a chance to, in a way kind of dig in a little bit more, I mean, these are times that all of these clubs are probably thinking of ways to keep members engaged, keep people active. And I know you've talked to some of the student leaders on campus. It's, it's a challenge for some of them, but it's also a, a, a great opportunity for some pretty interesting and pretty fun creativity. Patrick Leahy: Yeah. I mean, you , you mentioned that at the beginning of your, the statement, Matt, that we have, uh, everything from a boxing club to an occupational therapy. So, uh, that should be evidence that we offer the full slate. You can compete with each other and boxing, and if you hurt yourself in some way, you can go to see our folks in occupational therapy and get treatment. Matt Harmon: So, and you, and you know what, I didn't, I didn't think of the connection I was just looking across, but we Patrick Leahy: Got the whole thing covered, Matt. Matt Harmon: I do have the whole thing covered. Yeah. Patrick Leahy: I, you know, I often say this, I don't know if we've talked about it on our, our conversations yet, but people ask me all the time, what makes mammoth unique? And one of the things I think makes us so unique is I, I always say that we offer the opportunities, the programs, activities, and opportunities of a large research university, but we offer all of those opportunities in the culture of a small liberal arts college. And it's the combination of those two things that is so special. I mean, if you think about it, Matt, you could go to a much bigger place and get access to all those activities as well, but there's no way they can offer the caring, mentoring culture that we offer here at Monmouth on the con on the contrary, you could go to a small liberal art college and get that, you know, mentoring culture, but you're likely to trade off opportunities in doing so. We are the perfect size division one athletics program, the, the sweep of academic programs that we offer across seven schools, all those 120 clubs and activities, all the 20 some club sports that we offer. So we offer all those opportunities that you'd get at a lot of places, but we do it in a way because of our relatively, relatively small size or medium size, we do it in a way that still allows each individual student to have those relationships with faculty and staff members. It's a combination that is so special. And, uh, to me, I think adds tremendous value to a Monmouth university experience Matt Harmon: University, president Patrick Lehe, I'm faculty member, Matt Harmon. This is our latest episode of Monmouth weekly getting into the summer months. We'll keep you updated, uh, all during the course of the summer and give you the latest news as, uh, president lay, you know, you, you think in terms of what's coming for the fall. And I know that is essentially the, right now, the great unknown, um, but with some recent news of some restrictions, starting to lighten a little bit, um, things opening where maybe they weren't a couple weeks ago, I know the hope is that things will be back to normal. I also know that getting, um, emails as a faculty member, the, the plans are pretty vast. I, I saw a document this past week where there is a plan in place for essentially every possible scenario and contingency that goes along with it. Um, but again, to, to make the point that you have hit on several times in our three months of doing this, really, we have to wait for some more guidelines from the state. The state probably has to wait for some more guidelines from the government. Um, but at some point, Monmouth will get themselves back open and back going. Patrick Leahy: Yeah, we're working on every conceivable scenario, as you said. I mean, we have so many people working double time now to think through different scenarios and to try to figure out how would we as an institution, uh, be able to execute on those scenarios. Uh, so I, I do really feel positive that that we're planning accordingly, but I really don't wanna rush to a decision. Now if waiting two weeks or three weeks might allow us a better outcome because things have opened up more. If that makes, if that makes sense. So there's always this, I know people don't like to, to live in uncertainty and, uh, they yearn for clarity a as do I, but I feel like the responsible thing to do is to keep planning along a lot of scenarios and wait for that public health guidance to come down. It might not come down for a couple, few more weeks, but I think that that's a, a, a prudent thing to do is to wait for them so that we might, uh, ensure that our scenario for the fall is as close to normal as possible. We all recognize it will not be normal, but we want it to be as close to normal as possible. So, uh, we're, we're working on a lot of different, uh, potential, uh, avenues. We do think that there is a pathway to a very safe reopening in person, uh, instruction, uh, fall experience for our students. Uh, we do think there's a pathway to that, and, uh, it's gonna come with, you know, some careful planning and execution, but, um, I'm hopeful that, uh, the, the, the state of New Jersey will endorse all of our colleges and universities across the state getting toward that, um, little bit more normal scenario than we had at this past spring. Matt Harmon: But let me follow up with one thing. And then we'll wrap with where you're headed after we finish our recording. Um, and I'll follow up with, are, are you surprised and without using names of, of any other institution, are you surprised with the number of schools that have already made a decision? Yes, we are going back. Here's the altered schedule. Things are going to be normal, or in some cases, uh, schools have already made a decision that, that they will continue to teach remotely. Patrick Leahy: Am I surprised? Um, no, I guess I'm not surprised because I, I do, I do appreciate the pressure that I'm sure a lot of, uh, institutions feel to provide that clarity. Um, if you look closely at most of those announcements, Matt, there are really, uh, statements of hope, not statements of fact, , you know, most of them have qualifiers in there that say, you know, we hope to be operating in a certain way in the fall, but we'll need to wait for specific guidelines from our respective public health officials. Um, so, um, you know, the ones that have come out with some really flexible programming, I, I give them great credit cuz they, uh, you know, maybe they have, have, uh, already wrestled through a couple of these issues and come up with alternatives that, uh, provide flexibility so that they don't really need to wait for public health guidance. We're still, uh, waiting for the kind of direction from the state, which we know is coming, which might allow us to, uh, alter our plans in a positive way. Uh, so, you know, I I've said all along, I, I wanna wait as long as possible to make a responsible decision. I'm not gonna wait until August to decide what we're gonna do in September. That would not be fair to the campus community and everyone who has to get prepared. But I don't think it's, uh, unreasonable to wait well into June, uh, even maybe early July before we have definitive plans for the fall. In fact, I think Princeton here in the state of New Jersey has already come out and said, they're gonna wait till early July to make a decision. Um, and I think it's the prudent way to go right now Matt Harmon: When you, uh, wrap up with me in the next couple of minutes, you are off to your, uh, weekly staff, faculty zoom call. Um, and you know, we haven't spent a whole lot of time talking about those, but, but just the importance of trying to deliver the message. And I know on some calls you've had what upwards of, of five, 600 staff faculty and, and administrators on at one time, right? Patrick Leahy: yeah. I started doing these, uh, earlier, real early in the process using zoom. And, uh, at first Matt, I, I had only a zoom license that allowed, I think 200, uh, uh, subscribers. So I, I used to do four of them, three different ones for, for staff and then one for faculty. And, and then I, I just, uh, came up with this great, great insight, which everybody else knew. I guess, that all you had to do is, is, uh, petition, zoom, and pay a modest fee and they can increase the subscriber to, uh, number to a thousand. So I said, you know, what, why don't we just do this one time and invite all of our faculty and staff together, as you've pointed out we've had in the last few weeks, uh, almost 600 people on the call at the same time, knock on wood, that technology has held up and it's been, uh, you know, pretty easy to communicate with that many people at one time. But what I love about it are a couple things. One is I love the fact that we're having open meetings with faculty and staff often. Uh, our history has been to, to have sort of a meeting with the staff and a meeting with the faculty. Well, as far as I'm concerned, we're all in this together. So we may as well all hear the same story and all be able to ask questions and offer comments together. Uh, and that's proven to be, uh, pretty powerful. And then the second thing is I committed to doing these, like our podcasts on a weekly basis. I mean, some weeks there's more meaningful information to offer than others. Very often. I'm saying what I just said to you. Unfortunately I don't have perfect clarity, but, um, in, in the absence of that, I still think sharing with people, our thinking and the planning that is happening and the, you know, concern that everybody, uh, is showing toward, uh, the summer and fall activities I think is, uh, I hope helpful to, to people. Um, so we're gonna just keep doing 'em and as things come up, uh, on a weekly basis that are really important to share, I'll have that opportunity available to me. And even in the, the weeks where there's not a ton, ton of new information, still a chance to, to update people on how things are progressing and to allow them opportunities to ask me questions of any kind. Um, so it's proven to be pretty effective, uh, to this point. And maybe one of those things that even when we're back to a normal environment, still may take advantage of zoom and the opportunity to get that many people together at one time to communicate out or what's going on. Matt Harmon: You know, that's the one thing that a a as I've, I've hopped on a couple of them. I mean, selfishly, I have, I have my personal zoom every week with you, so I kind of know what's going on. Um, but, but as a faculty member, as a staff member, as an administrator, I think one of the things that has been nice, um, and, and clearly correct me if I'm wrong, it, it is an open forum. So if someone has a question, no matter what it, it is, they have an opportunity to ask you is the president of the university. You, you might not always have an immediate answer to it, but I'm sure like anything else the answer would be well, here's what I know now. And I'll, and I'll find out the rest later on, Patrick Leahy: You know, people on these calls, Matt have been at Monmouth university, virtually all of them, probably all of them have been here longer than I have. And some have been dedicated to this university for 10, 20, 30 years or more. I just believe they've earned the right to ask me whatever they want. Now I may not have good answers for them, but, uh, I wanna make sure I provide opportunities for them, uh, in an open context to ask me, uh, the questions that are on their mind. And I try my best to answer them. I I'm sure, uh, folks go away from time to time, you know, either unsatisfied with the answer or, uh, uh, unhappy with the answer perhaps, but, um, I certainly wanna make sure they feel they have the plenty of opportunities to, to engage directly with the president. Matt Harmon: Well, I think most would would say that they appreciate that opportunity. I appreciate the opportunity to do this each and every week. I know you have to run because you do have that, uh, that call coming up. But I appreciate you carving a little bit of time out on a, on a short week, we missed, uh, you know, our, our normal may be slot, but we'll get this out as quick as possible. Keep everybody updated all during the course of the summer. Um, and look forward to talking to you again next week. Patrick Leahy: Yeah. Thanks again, Matt, for your enduring, uh, commitment to this, uh, to this program. I really appreciate it and hope it's of some value to, to folks who take a few minutes to listen in Matt Harmon: University, president Patrick Lehe, I'm faculty member, Matt Harmon. We thank you for giving us part of your day. It is mom with weekly episode 11, we'll talk to you next week, episode 12, right around the corner.